Every
once in a great while a good game sneaks up on you
that is so unexpected, so out of left field, that
you almost feel embarrassed because of how you judged
it so unashamedly before placing it into the game
system. Last years surprise hit, Greg Hasting's Tournament
Paintball is one such title. Paint Ball? Didn't they
try this back on the NES with Gotcha? How good could
it possibly be? It turns out, surprisingly good.

MAX'D,
the second in the GHTP series takes everything you
loved about the first game and cranks it to 11 on
the Spinal Tap scale of greatness. However you must
remember that this is a paintball game. Don't mistake
GHTP for another in a long line of FPS, even though
the game takes place from a first person perspective.
Although there are numerous upgrades available in
terms of markers (paintball guns), barrels and hoppers,
you won't find sniper rifles or grenade launchers
littering the landscape. It will just be you, your
teammates and your paintball gun which makes an audible
click when you fire it. Boom stick jockeys and giblet
junkies need not apply. In other words you don't necessarily
have to be a paintball aficionado to enjoy GHPTM,
but I'm sure it helps.

Having
spent one afternoon of my life playing paintball many
years ago, I'm hardly what you'd call an expert. I
spent most of the day cowering in fear that some overzealous
idiot was going to run up and shoot me pointblank
in the temple. My anxiety was clearly founded as one
of my teammates mistook me for the enemy and bust
a paintball cap in my ass from about 3 feet away.
What a maroon! I had to stand while driving home.
But fear not dear reader, as good as the opponent
AI is in GHTP, they will not be able to jump out of
the TV screen and shoot at you with those hard little
paintballs. In case I've caused you unecessary stress
regarding your own over zealous squad shooting you
in the back or face, developer WXP (aka The Whole
Experience) has given you a healthy dose of control
over them so you can tell them where to go and what
to do when they get there.

Paintball
players in "real life" - What is this
real life that you speak of, oh video game master?
- will definitely get the most mileage out of WXP's
attention to detail. Located within MAX'D are numerous
paintball and gear companies that paintballers will
recognize while the rest of us respond with "Oh,
a new pair of gloves. Kean!" As well WXP mananged
to secure the rights to 39 pro paintballers including
of course Greg Hastings and rookie Lou Tomasso of
DamonZane skateboards (cool gear!). Continuing in
the tradition of the last game, MAX'D features a healthy
collection of 29 realworld tournaments featuring over
213 different field layouts. If that wasn't enough
for you, WXP managed to squeeze in a feature-filled
Field Editor and Match Editor both of which are extremely
easy to use. These awesome features allow you to create
your very own environment to hold a tournament in
and designate what kind of match you want to participate
in.

Playing
through Career is where single players will get the
most out of MAX'D as this mode provides the experience
points needed to upgrade skills and advance to previously
unlocked tournaments. Any tournaments completed in
Career can be replayed at any time in Arcade mode
but players will not be rewarded with experience points
for subsequent wins. MAX'D also features a co-op mode
for up to 4 players offline via splitscreen or online
multiplayer which is really where those looking for
MAX'Ds competitive edge should be playing.

Surprisingly
MAX'D features a robust control scheme which rivals
that of any recent FPS. Players will be able to burst
run, crouch, crawl, dive, snap, reload and command
their teammates all executed through an intuitive
configuration. The obligatory training level is provided
to get the basics down but players will be up and
running to their first tournament in no time flat.
The essential movements in MAX'D come in the form
of snaps and dives - both of which will keep you from
being a moving target as much as possible. Snaps allow
you to peek around or above an obstacle with varying
degrees of exposure so you can pop out, shoot and
retreat. Dives are exactly what they sound like -
when you're moving from one place to another it's
a good idea to get a burst of speed and then dive
to your destination. If you aren't a moving target
in paintball, you're a sitting duck. Unfortunately
you can't jump and dive, which would help to get your
butt behind some cover fast. Another bone of contention
is the inability to crawl inside pipes and other hiding
spots that would definitely house a human-sized body.
I'm not sure if this tactic is against the rules of
paintball and it seems silly if it is.

At
the start of each round you're presented with the
Breakout Manager screen which allows you to adjust
exactly where you want to position yourself and your
teammates. Using the D-pad you'll also be able to
assign 4 different quick plays to your team so they
can function on their own without constant babysitting.
At first you'll be placing the team in random spots
and assigning any old quick play because you won't
know any better, but as you progress you'll realize
there is a great deal of strategy involved according
to where you start from and what actions your teammates
should perform based on the lay of the land and the
skill level of your opponents. Once you start the
round, you'll be able to command your teammates either
by talking into the headset or using the white button
to issue any of the 14 available voice commands such
as Attack, Front Center, Back Right, Your Mom's A
Slob...just kidding about that last one, although
I hear there may be some truth behind it.

Visually
MAX'D isn't going to win any awards. It's as graphically
perfunctory as they come, looking like a throwback
to the first current generation Tony Hawk games on
the PS2. That's not to say it's particularly ugly,
just don't expect to be blown away by the onscreen
environments. Taking in consideration MAX'D is part
of the Activision Value line, we'll just let it go
at that. The soundtrack supports your own custom tunes
which is always a welcome addition although the tunes
available by various bands are perfectly suited for
this alternative sport.

One
of the more frustrating experiences I had with MAX'D
involved the game freezing when it was loading the
next level which required a complete reboot. Unfortunately
I didn't take my own advice of "save often and
save even more often than that", so I had to
replay a couple of tournaments due to this. The game
seems to hang consistently when trying to load the
third tournament. I'm not sure what the problem is
(nor how to solve it) and I know I'm not alone as
I've read a few reports of this. Definitely not acceptable.
I eventually made it past the third tournament but
the freeze happened a few other times throughout my
time with MAX'D.

As
mentioned you'll get a lot out of the single player,
but multiplayer online is really where it's at. That
is, if you can find like-minded individuals to play
with and against. I went snooping and didn't find
a whole lot of action the few times I attempted, but
I did manage to get into a few games with a couple
of real morons. I kid you not, one dumb ass on my
team came up behind me and shot me (Friendly Fire
was activated)! How coincidental can you get? He laughed
and laughed too.

I
have to really hand it to WXP as they have included
a wide variety of options for online play and since
paintball is a social sport - if you can call shooting
people in the ass or face with a hard ball a social
activity - it is highly recommended that you if you
love paintball, you'll really dig playing online.

Unfortunately
I have little to no previous experience with the first
game so I honestly can't tell you if a purchase of
MAX'D is a sure thing. What I can share is that aside
from the freezing which I understand doesn't happen
to everyone, MAX'D is a damn fine example of catering
to a specialist sport. WXP has really thought of everything
and included it, to the best of my limited knowledge
of paintball. If paintball is something you're passionate
about, MAX'D is a superbly crafted digital representation
of the sport jampacked with features, pros, gear and
challenging gameplay that you'll enjoy far after paintball
season is over.